University College London apologises after 'dreaming of a white campus' tweet was deemed racist

University College London has apologised after its "dreaming of a white campus" tweet was deemed to be racist.

The university said it was sorry and had chosen its words "very poorly", following a backlash from those who interpreted the message as an offensive remark.

On Monday, the university posted a message on its official Twitter account which said: “Dreaming of a white campus? Our campuses will be open and operating fully today, Monday 11 December, so please make your way in as planned. (We can't guarantee snow but we'll try!)”

We chose our words very poorly yesterday when thinking of this song: https://t.co/G5ZthTn8NT We’re sorry and we’ll choose our words more carefully in the future.

Kumail Jaffer, a PPE student at Warwick University urged UCL to “retract and apologise”. He added that if anyone does not understand why the comment is offensive, they should “look into the history of the oppression of the PoC [People of Colour]”.

UCL later issued an apology for its original comment, saying: “We chose our words very poorly yesterday….We’re sorry and we’ll choose our words more carefully in the future.”

The university explained on its Twitter account that it had been referring to the song, White Christmas, and posted a link to a YouTube video of the original 1942 by Bing Crosby recording of the festive number.

Some felt that UCL’s apology was unnecessary, claiming that the university was “crumbling” under pressure from “snowflake” students.

Jennie Powell wrote on Twitter: "You really are absurd...how can anyone be offended by the fact that snow is white? Nobody can change that, get a grip."

Stefan Roy added: "Seriously why are you pandering to such nonsense? They're clearly trying to find offense when there's none there....And you apologizing just makes it worse."

Earlier this week, Oxford Brookes University was criticised for closing its buildings due to “heavy snow”, with students arguing that they need access to libraries to study.